four years of furious civil conflict without any seriousdetriment to its free institutions.

He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by theopposition as a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond hisconstitutional powers in authorizing or permitting the temporarysuppression of newspapers, and in wantonly suspending the writ ofhabeas corpus and resorting to arbitrary arrests. Nobody shouldbe blamed who, when such things are done, in good faith and frompatriotic motives protests against them. In a republic,arbitrary stretches of power, even when demanded by necessity,should never be permitted to pass without a protest on the onehand, and without an apology on the other. It is well they didnot so pass during our civil war. That arbitrary measures wereresorted to is true. That they were resorted to most sparingly,and only when the government thought them absolutely required bythe safety of the republic, will now hardly be denied. Butcertain it is that the history of the world does not furnish asingle example of a government passing through so tremendous acrisis as our civil war was with so small a record of arbitraryacts, and so little interference with the ordinary course of lawoutside the field of military operations. No American Presidentever wielded such power as that which was thrust into Lincoln'shands. It is to be hoped that no American President ever willhave to be entrusted with such power again. But no man was everentrusted with it to whom its seductions were less dangerous thanthey proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care heendeavored, even under the most trying circumstances, to remainstrictly within the constitutional limitations of his authority;and whenever the boundary became indistinct, or when the dangersof the situation forced him to cross it, he was equally carefulto mark his acts as exceptional measures, justifiable only by theimperative necessities of the civil war, so that they might notpass into history as precedents for similar acts in time ofpeace. It is an unquestionable fact that during thereconstruction period which followed the war, more things weredone capable of serving as dangerous precedents than during thewar itself. Thus it may truly be said of him not only that underhis guidance the republic was saved from disruption and thecountry was purified of the blot of slavery, but that, during thestormiest and most perilous crisis in our history, he soconducted the government and so wielded his almost dictatorialpower as to leave essentially intact our free institutions in allthings that concern the rights and liberties of the citizens. Heunderstood well the nature of the problem. In his first messageto Congress he defined it in admirably pointed language: "Must agovernment be of necessity too strong for the liberties of itsown people, or too weak to maintain its own existence? Is therein all republics this inherent weakness?" This question heanswered in the name of the great American republic, as no mancould have answered it better, with a triumphant "No...."

It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right momentfor his fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of hisdeath, certainly not exhausted his usefulness to his country. Hewas probably the only man who could have guided the nationthrough the perplexities of the reconstruction period in such amanner as to prevent in the work of peace the revival of thepassions of the war. He would indeed not have escaped seriouscontroversy as to details of policy; but he could have weatheredit far better than any other statesman of his time, for hisprestige with the active politicians had been immenselystrengthened by his triumphant re-election; and, what is moreimportant, he would have been supported by the confidence of thevictorious Northern people that he would do all to secure thesafety of the Union and the rights of the emancipated negro, andat the same time by the confidence of the defeated Southernpeople that nothing would be done by him from motives ofvindictiveness, or of unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfishparty spirit. "With malice toward none, with charity for all,"the foremost of the victors would have personified in himself thegenius of reconciliation.

He might have rendered the country a great service in anotherdirection. A few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed outto a friend the crowd of office-seekers besieging his door."Look at that," said he. " Now we have conquered the rebellion,but here you see something that may become more dangerous to thisrepublic than the rebellion itself." It is true, Lincoln asPresident did not profess what we now call civil service reformprinciples. He used the patronage of the government in manycases avowedly to reward party work, in many others to formcombinations and to produce political effects advantageous to theUnion cause, and in still others simply to put the right man intothe right place. But in his endeavors to strengthen the Unioncause, and in his search for able and useful men for publicduties, he frequently went beyond the limits of his party, andgradually accustomed himself to the thought that, while partyservice had its value, considerations of the public interestwere, as to appointments to office, of far greater consequence.Moreover, there had been such a mingling of different politicalelements in support of the Union during the civil war thatLincoln, standing at the head of that temporarily united motleymass, hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense of the term, aparty man. And as he became strongly impressed with the dangersbrought upon the republic by the use of public offices as partyspoils, it is by no means improbable that, had he survived theall-absorbing crisis and found time to turn to other objects, oneof the most important reforms of later days would have beenpioneered by his powerful authority. This was not to be. Butthe measure of his achievements was full enough for immortality.

To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become ahalf-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance,grows to more and more heroic proportions, but also loses indistinctness of outline and feature. This is indeed the commonlot of popular heroes; but the Lincoln legend will be more thanordinarily apt to become fanciful, as his individuality,assembling seemingly incongruous qualities and forces in acharacter at the same time grand and most lovable, was so unique,and his career so abounding in startling contrasts. As the stateof society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up passes away, theworld will read with increasing wonder of the man who, not onlyof the humblest origin, but remaining the simplest and mostunpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of powerunprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and mostpeace-loving of mortals, unable to see any creature sufferwithout a pang in his own breast, and suddenly found himselfcalled to conduct the greatest and bloodiest of our wars; whowielded the power of government when stern resolution andrelentless force were the order of the day and then won and ruledthe popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of hisnature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mentalhabit, and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution ofour time; who, preserving his homely speech and rustic mannereven in the most conspicuous position of that period, drew uponhimself the scoffs of polite society, and then thrilled the soulof mankind with utterances of wonderful beauty and grandeur; who,in his heart the best friend of the defeated South, was murderedbecause a crazy fanatic took him for its most cruel enemy; who,while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and maligned bysectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around whosebier friend and foe gathered to praise him which they have sincenever ceased to do--as one of the greatest of Americans and thebest of men.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE

[This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh PhilosophicalInstitution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set withthe courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y.Crowell & Company.]

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on thisoccasion, I recognized that I owed this compliment to the factthat I was the official representative of America, and inselecting a subject I ventured to think that I might interest youfor an hour in a brief study in popular government, asillustrated by the life of the most American of all Americans. Itherefore offer no apology for asking your attention to AbrahamLincoln--to his unique character and the part he bore in twoimportant achievements of modern history: the preservation of theintegrity of the American Union and the emancipation of thecolored race.

During his brief term of power he was probably the object of moreabuse, vilification, and ridicule than any other man in theworld; but when he fell by the hand of an assassin, at the verymoment of his stupendous victory, all the nations of the earthvied with one another in paying homage to his character, and thethirty-five years that have since elapsed have established hisplace in history as one of the great benefactors not of his owncountry alone, but of the human race.

One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death wasthat in which 'Punch' made its magnanimous recantation of thespirit with which it had pursued him:

"Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, Between the mourners at his head and feet, Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you?

...................

"Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, To lame my pencil, and confute my pen To make me own this hind--of princes peer, This rail-splitter--a true born king of men."

Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, andbiography will be searched in vain for such startlingvicissitudes of fortune, so great power and glory won out of suchhumble beginnings and adverse circumstances.

Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of hisextraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise,patient, courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising morepower than any monarch of his time, not for himself, but for thegood of the people who had placed it in his hands; commander-in-chief of a vast military power, which waged with ultimate successthe greatest war of the century; the triumphant champion ofpopular government, the deliverer of four millions of his fellow-men from bondage; honored by mankind as Statesman, President, andLiberator.

Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of whichthis was the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could bemore squalid and miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincolnwas born--a one-roomed cabin without floor or window in what wasthen the wilderness of Kentucky, in the heart of that frontierlife which swiftly moved westward from the Alleghanies to theMississippi, always in advance of schools and churches, of booksand money, of railroads and newspapers, of all things which aregenerally regarded as the comforts and even necessaries of life.His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, content if he couldkeep soul and body together for himself and his family, was everseeking, without success, to better his unhappy condition bymoving on from one such scene of dreary desolation to another.The rude society which surrounded them was not much better. Thestruggle for existence was hard, and absorbed all their energies.They were fighting the forest, the wild beast, and the retreatingsavage. From the time when he could barely handle tools until heattained his majority, Lincoln's life was that of a simple farmlaborer, poorly clad, housed, and fed, at work either on hisfather's wretched farm or hired out to neighboring farmers. Butin spite, or perhaps by means, of this rude environment, he grewto be a stalwart giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, andfabulous stories are told of his feats of strength. With thegrowth of this mighty frame began that strange education which inhis ripening years was to qualify him for the great destiny thatawaited him, and the development of those mental faculties andmoral endowments which, by the time he reached middle life, wereto make him the sagacious, patient, and triumphant leader of agreat nation in the crisis of its fate. His whole schooling,obtained during such odd times as could be spared from grindinglabor, did not amount in all to as much as one year, and thequality of the teaching was of the lowest possible grade,including only the elements of reading, writing, and ciphering.But out of these simple elements, when rightly used by the rightman, education is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use them. Asso often happens, he seemed to take warning from his father'sunfortunate example. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst forknowledge, and an ever-growing desire to rise above hissurroundings, were early manifestations of his character.

Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was inevery house, and somehow or other Pilgrim's Progress, AEsop'sFables, a History of the United States, and a Life of Washingtonfell into his hands. He trudged on foot many miles through thewilderness to borrow an English Grammar, and is said to havedevoured greedily the contents of the Statutes of Indiana thatfell in his way. These few volumes he read and reread--and hispower of assimilation was great. To be shut in with a few booksand to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for thedevelopment of character than freedom to range at large, in acursory and indiscriminate way, through wide domains ofliterature. This youth's mind, at any rate, was thoroughlysaturated with Biblical knowledge and Biblical language, which,in after life, he used with great readiness and effect. But itwas the constant use of the little knowledge which he had thatdeveloped and exercised his mental powers. After the hard day'swork was done, while others slept, he toiled on, always readingor writing. From an early age he did his own thinking and madeup his own mind--invaluable traits in the future President.Paper was such a scarce commodity that, by the evening firelight,he would write and cipher on the back of a wooden shovel, andthen shave it off to make room for more. By and by, as heapproached manhood, he began speaking in the rude gatherings ofthe neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art ofpersuading his fellow-men which was one rich result of hiseducation, and one great secret of his subsequent success.

Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs tohave every intelligent boy survey the whole world each morningbefore breakfast, and inform himself as to what is going on inevery nation, it is hardly possible to conceive how benighted andisolated was the condition of the community at Pigeon Creek inIndiana, of which the family of Lincoln's father formed a part,or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, such as he,must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever gotof any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828,at the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompanyhis son down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat ofproduce--a commission which he discharged with great success.

Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into theouter world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed hisfamily and all his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by twoyoke of oxen, and after a fourteen days' tramp through thewilderness, pitched his camp once more, in Illinois. HereAbraham, having come of age and being now his own master,rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing thefifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of theprimeval forest enough rails to surround the little clearing witha fence. Such was the meagre outfit of this coming leader ofmen, at the age when the future British Prime Minister orstatesman emerges from the university as a double first or seniorwrangler, with every advantage that high training and broadculture and association with the wisest and the best of men andwomen can give, and enters upon some form of public service onthe road to usefulness and honor, the University course beingonly the first stage of the public training. So Lincoln, attwenty-one, had just begun his preparation for the public life towhich he soon began to aspire. For some years yet he mustcontinue to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, havingabsolutely no means, no home, no friend to consult. More farmwork as a hired hand, a clerkship in a village store, the runningof a mill, another trip to New Orleans on a flatboat of his owncontriving, a pilot's berth on the river--these were the means bywhich he subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he wastwenty-three years of age, an event occurred which gave himpublic recognition.

The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinoiscalling for volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leaderbore that name, Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by hiscomrades, among whom he had already established his supremacy bysignal feats of strength and more than one successful singlecombat. During the brief hostilities he was engaged in no battleand won no military glory, but his local leadership wasestablished. The same year he offered himself as a candidate forthe Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet hisvast popularity with those who knew him was manifest. Thedistrict consisted of several counties, but the unanimous vote ofthe people of his own county was for Lincoln. Anotherunsuccessful attempt at store-keeping was followed by better luckat surveying, until his horse and instruments were levied uponunder execution for the debts of his business adventure.

I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years becauseupon these strange foundations the structure of his great fameand service was built. In the place of a school and universitytraining fortune substituted these trials, hardships, andstruggles as a preparation for the great work which he had to do.It turned out to be exactly what the emergency required. Tenyears instead at the public school and the university certainlynever could have fitted this man for the unique work which was tobe thrown upon him. Some other Moses would have had to lead usto our Jordan, to the sight of our promised land of liberty.

At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislatureof Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in themeantime, qualified himself by reading such law books as he couldborrow at random--for he was too poor to buy any to be called tothe Bar. For his second quarter of a century--during which asingle term in Congress introduced him into the arena of nationalquestions--he gave himself up to law and politics. In spite ofhis soaring ambition, his two years in Congress gave him nopremonition of the great destiny that awaited him,--and at itsclose, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant to thePresident for appointment as Commissioner of the General LandOffice--a purely administrative bureau; a fortunate escape forhimself and for his country. Year by year his knowledge andpower, his experience and reputation extended, and his mentalfaculties seemed to grow by what they fed on. His power ofpersuasion, which had always been marked, was developed to anextraordinary degree, now that he became engaged in congenialquestions and subjects. Little by little he rose to prominenceat the Bar, and became the most effective public speaker in theWest. Not that he possessed any of the graces of the orator; buthis logic was invincible, and his clearness and force ofstatement impressed upon his hearers the convictions of hishonest mind, while his broad sympathies and sparkling and genialhumor made him a universal favorite as far and as fast as hisacquaintance extended.

These twenty years that elapsed from the time of hisestablishment as a lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the newcapital of Illinois, furnished a fitting theatre for thedevelopment and display of his great faculties, and, with his newand enlarged opportunities, he obviously grew in mental staturein this second period of his career, as if to compensate for theabsolute lack of advantages under which he had suffered in youth.As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, for he wasalways before the people, felt a warm sympathy with all thatconcerned them, took a zealous part in the discussion of everypublic question, and made his personal influence ever more widelyand deeply felt.

My, brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, howcould this rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in theforest or on the farm and the flatboat, without culture ortraining, education or study, by the random reading, on the wing,of a few miscellaneous law books, become a learned andaccomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. He never would haveearned his salt as a 'Writer' for the 'Signet', nor have won aplace as advocate in the Court of Session, where the technique ofthe profession has reached its highest perfection, and centuriesof learning and precedent are involved in the equipment of alawyer. Dr. Holmes, when asked by an anxious young mother, "Whenshould the education of a child begin?" replied, "Madam, at leasttwo centuries before it is born!" and so I am sure it is with theScots lawyer.

But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between i83o and x88o itspopulation increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln beganpractising law in Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was verycrude and simple, and so were the courts and the administrationof justice. Books and libraries were scarce. But the peopleloved justice, upheld the law, and followed the courts, and soonfound their favorites among the advocates. The fundamentalprinciples of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone andChitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, commonsense, force of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit andpower of speech did the rest, and supplied all the deficienciesof learning.

The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and theprinciples of natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose ofthem at the Bar and on the Bench, without resort to technicallearning. Railroads, corporations absorbing the chief businessof the community, combined and inherited wealth, with all thesubtle and intricate questions they breed, had not yet come in--and so the professional agents and the equipment which theyrequire were not needed. But there were many highly educated andpowerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early days,whom the spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fameand fortune. It was by constant contact and conflict with thesethat Lincoln acquired professional strength and skill. Everycommunity and every age creates its own Bar, entirely adequatefor its present uses and necessities. So in Illinois, as thepopulation and wealth of the State kept on doubling andquadrupling, its Bar presented a growing abundance of learningand science and technical skill. The early practitioners grewwith its growth and mastered the requisite knowledge. Chicagosoon grew to be one of the largest and richest and certainly themost intensely active city on the continent, and if any of myprofessional friends here had gone there in Lincoln's lateryears, to try or argue a cause, or transact other business, withany idea that Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of legallearning, science, or subtlety, they would certainly have foundtheir mistake.

In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially everycourt lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged inthe public discussion of the many questions evolved from therapid development of town, county, State, and Federal affairs.Then and there, in this regard, public discussion supplied theplace which the universal activity of the press has sincemonopolized, and the public speaker who, by clearness, force,earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on the questions ofthe day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence of thatimmense variety of popular entertainments which now feed thepublic taste and appetite, the people found their chief amusementin frequenting the courts and public and political assemblies.In either place, he who impressed, entertained, and amused themmost was the hero of the hour. They did not discriminate verycarefully between the eloquence of the forum and the eloquence ofthe hustings. Human nature ruled in both alike, and he who wasthe most effective speaker in a political harangue was oftenretained as most likely to win in a cause to be tried or argued.And I have no doubt in this way many retainers came to Lincoln.Fees, money in any form, had no charms for him--in his eagerpursuit of fame he could not afford to make money. He wasambitious to distinguish himself by some great service tomankind, and this ambition for fame and real public service leftno room for avarice in his composition. However much he earned,he seems to have ended every year hardly richer than he began it,and yet, as the years passed, fees came to him freely. One ofL 1,000 is recorded--a very large professional fee at that time,even in any part of America, the paradise of lawyers. I laygreat stress on Lincoln's career as a lawyer--much more than hisbiographers do because in America a state of things exists whollydifferent from that which prevails in Great Britain. Theprofession of the law always has been and is to this day theprincipal avenue to public life; and I am sure that his trainingand experience in the courts had much to do with the developmentof those forces of intellect and character which he soondisplayed on a broader arena.

It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired hiswide reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression uponthe people of what had now become the powerful State of Illinois,and upon the people of the Great West, to whom the politicalpower and control of the United States were already surely andswiftly passing from the older Eastern States. It was thisreputation and this impression, and the familiar knowledge of hischaracter which had come to them from his local leadership, thathappily inspired the people of the West to present him as theircandidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of1860 as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for lifewhich was before the nation.

That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terriblequestion of slavery--and I must trust to your general knowledgeof the history of that question to make intelligible the attitudeand leadership of Lincoln as the champion of the hosts of freedomin the final contest. Negro slavery had been firmly establishedin the Southern States from an early period of their history. In1619, the year before the Mayflower landed our Pilgrim Fathersupon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had discharged a cargo ofAfrican slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All through the colonialperiod their importation had continued. A few had found theirway into the Northern States, but none of them in sufficientnumbers to constitute danger or to afford a basis for politicalpower. At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution,there is no doubt that the principal members of the conventionnot only condemned slavery as a moral, social, and politicalevil, but believed that by the suppression of the slave trade itwas in the course of gradual extinction in the South, as itcertainly was in the North. Washington, in his will, providedfor the emancipation of his own slaves, and said to Jeffersonthat it "was among his first wishes to see some plan adopted bywhich slavery in his country might be abolished." Jeffersonsaid, referring to the institution: "I tremble for my countrywhen I think that God is just; that His justice cannot sleepforever,"--and Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Patrick Henry wereall utterly opposed to it. But it was made the subject of afatal compromise in the Federal Constitution, whereby itsexistence was recognized in the States as a basis ofrepresentation, the prohibition of the importation of slaves waspostponed for twenty years, and the return of fugitive slavesprovided for. But no imminent danger was apprehended from ittill, by the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton cultureby negro labor became at once and forever the leading industry ofthe South, and gave a new impetus to the importation of slaves,so that in 1808, when the constitutional prohibition took effect,their numbers had vastly increased. From that time forwardslavery became the basis of a great political power, and theSouthern States, under all circumstances and at everyopportunity, carried on a brave and unrelenting struggle for itsmaintenance and extension.

The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, thoughbitter controversies from time to time took place. The Southernleaders threatened disunion if their demands were not compliedwith. To save the Union, compromise after compromise was made,but each one in the end was broken. The Missouri Compromise,made in 1820 upon the occasion of the admission of Missouri intothe Union as a slave State, whereby, in consideration of suchadmission, slavery was forever excluded from the NorthwestTerritory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress electedin the interests of the slave power, the intent being to forceslavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicatedto freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumberingconscience and passion of the North, and led to the formation ofthe Republican party for the avowed purpose of preventing, byconstitutional methods, the further extension of slavery.

In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect itscandidates; it received a surprising vote and carried many of theStates. No one could any longer doubt that the North had made upits mind that no threats of disunion should deter it frompressing its cherished purpose and performing its long neglectedduty. From the outset, Lincoln was one of the most active andeffective leaders and speakers of the new party, and the greatdebates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, as the respectivechampions of the restriction and extension of slavery, attractedthe attention of the whole country. Lincoln's powerful argumentscarried conviction everywhere. His moral nature was thoroughlyaroused his conscience was stirred to the quick. Unless slaverywas wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever color,entitled to the fruits of his own labor, or could one man live inidle luxury by the sweat of another's brow, whose skin wasdarker? He was an implicit believer in that principle of theDeclaration of Independence that all men are vested with certaininalienable rights the equal rights to life, liberty, and thepursuit of happiness. On this doctrine he staked his case andcarried it. We have time only for one or two sentences in whichhe struck the keynote of the contest

"The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle betweenthese two principles--right and wrong--throughout the world.They are the two principles that have stood face to face from thebeginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The oneis the common right of humanity, and the other the divine rightof kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it developsitself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil andearn bread and I'll eat it."

He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitableand irrepressible--that one or the other, the right or the wrong,freedom or slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail,throughout the country; and this was the principle that carriedthe war, once begun, to a finish.

One sentence of his is immortal:

"Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slaveryagitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented.In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have beenreached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannotstand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently halfslave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved.I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will ceaseto be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other;either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread ofit, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the beliefthat it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocateswill push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all theStates, old as well as new, North as well as South."

During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of theslavery question was at the boiling point, and events which havebecome historical continually indicated the near approach of theoverwhelming storm. No sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850resulted in a temporary peace, which everybody said must be finaland perpetual, than new outbreaks came. The forcible carryingaway of fugitive slaves by Federal troops from Boston agitatedthat ancient stronghold of freedom to its foundations. Thepublication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which truly exposed thefrightful possibilities of the slave system; the recklessattempts by force and fraud to establish it in Kansas against thewill of the vast majority of the settlers; the beating of Summerin the Senate Chamber for words spoken in debate; the Dred Scottdecision in the Supreme Court, which made the nation realize thatthe slave power had at last reached the fountain of Federaljustice; and finally the execution of John Brown, for his wildraid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to rally to the standardof freedom which he unfurled:--all these events tend toillustrate and confirm Lincoln's contention that the nation couldnot permanently continue half slave and half free, but mustbecome all one thing or all the other. When John Brown lay undersentence of death he declared that now he was sure that slaverymust be wiped out in blood; but neither he nor his executionersdreamt that within four years a million soldiers would bemarching across the country for its final extirpation, to themusic of the war-song of the great conflict:

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, But his soul is marching on."

And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness,this farm laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor,lawyer, orator, statesman, and patriot, found himself elected bythe great party which was pledged to prevent at all hazards thefurther extension of slavery, as the chief magistrate of theRepublic, bound to carry out that purpose, to be the leader andruler of the nation in its most trying hour.

Those who believe that there is a living Providence thatoverrules and conducts the affairs of nations, find in theelevation of this plain man to this extraordinary fortune and tothis great duty, which he so fitly discharged, a signalvindication of their faith. Perhaps to this philosophicalinstitution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will commenditself as a just estimate of Lincoln's historical place

"His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good senseof mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according tothe need; his mind mastered the problem of the day: and as theproblem grew, so did his comprehension of it. In the war therewas no place for holiday magistrate, nor fair-weather sailor.The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In fouryears--four years of battle days--his endurance, his fertility ofresource, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, and never foundwanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even temper,his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure inthe centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of theAmerican people in his time, the true representative of thiscontinent--father of his country, the pulse of twenty millionsthrobbing in his heart, the thought of their mind--articulated inhis tongue."

He was born great, as distinguished from those who achievegreatness or have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity,mental, moral, and physical, having been recognized by theeducated intelligence of a free people, they happily chose himfor their ruler in a day of deadly peril.

It is now forty years since I first saw and heard AbrahamLincoln, but the impression which he left on my mind isineffaceable. After his great successes in the West he came toNew York to make a political address. He appeared in every senseof the word like one of the plain people among whom he loved tobe counted. At first sight there was nothing impressive orimposing about him--except that his great stature singled him outfrom the crowd: his clothes hung awkwardly on his giant frame;his face was of a dark pallor, without the slightest tinge ofcolor; his seamed and rugged features bore the furrows ofhardship and struggle; his deep-set eyes looked sad and anxious;his countenance in repose gave little evidence of that brainpower which had raised him from the lowest to the highest stationamong his countrymen; as he talked to me before the meeting, heseemed ill at ease, with that sort of apprehension which a youngman might feel before presenting himself to a new and strangeaudience, whose critical disposition he dreaded. It was a greataudience, including all the noted men--all the learned andcultured of his party in New York editors, clergymen, statesmen,lawyers, merchants, critics. They were all very curious to hearhim. His fame as a powerful speaker had preceded him, andexaggerated rumor of his wit--the worst forerunner of an orator--had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant presented him, on the highplatform of the Cooper Institute, a vast sea of eager upturnedfaces greeted him, full of intense curiosity to see what thisrude child of the people was like. He was equal to the occasion.When he spoke he was transformed; his eye kindled, his voicerang, his face shone and seemed to light up the whole assembly.For an hour and a half he held his audience in the hollow of hishand. His style of speech and manner of delivery were severelysimple. What Lowell called "the grand simplicities of theBible," with which he was so familiar, were reflected in hisdiscourse. With no attempt at ornament or rhetoric, withoutparade or pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any cameexpecting the turgid eloquence or the ribaldry of the frontier,they must have been startled at the earnest and sincere purity ofhis utterances. It was marvellous to see how this untutored man,by mere self-discipline and the chastening of his own spirit, hadoutgrown all meretricious arts, and found his own way to thegrandeur and strength of absolute simplicity.

He spoke upon the theme which he had mastered so thoroughly. Hedemonstrated by copious historical proofs and masterly logic thatthe fathers who created the Constitution in order to form a moreperfect union, to establish justice, and to secure the blessingsof liberty to themselves and their posterity, intended to empowerthe Federal Government to exclude slavery from the Territories.In the kindliest spirit he protested against the avowed threat ofthe Southern States to destroy the Union if, in order to securefreedom in those vast regions out of which future States were tobe carved, a Republican President were elected. He closed withan appeal to his audience, spoken with all the fire of hisaroused and kindling conscience, with a full outpouring of hislove of justice and liberty, to maintain their political purposeon that lofty and unassailable issue of right and wrong whichalone could justify it, and not to be intimidated from their highresolve and sacred duty by any threats of destruction to thegovernment or of ruin to themselves. He concluded with thistelling sentence, which drove the whole argument home to all ourhearts: "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in thatfaith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it."That night the great hall, and the next day the whole city, rangwith delighted applause and congratulations, and he who had comeas a stranger departed with the laurels of great triumph.

Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, forthe last time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through itsdraped streets. With tears and lamentations a heart-brokenpeople accompanied him from Washington, the scene of hismartyrdom, to his last resting-place in the young city of theWest where he had worked his way to fame.

Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincolnwhen he entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four monthsafter his election, and took his oath to support the Constitutionand the Union. The intervening time had been busily employed bythe Southern States in carrying out their threat of disunion inthe event of his election. As soon as the fact was ascertained,seven of them had seceded and had seized upon the forts,arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of the UnitedStates within their boundaries, and were making every preparationfor war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had beenelected by the slave power, and who thought the seceding Statescould not lawfully be coerced, had done absolutely nothing.Lincoln found himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief ofthe Army and Navy of the United States, but with only a remnantof either at hand. Each was to be created on a great scale outof the unknown resources of a nation untried in war.

In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealingto the seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowedhis purpose to keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to seethat the laws of the Union were faithfully executed, and to usethe troops to recover the forts, navy yards, and other propertybelonging to the government. It is probable, however, thatneither side actually realized that war was inevitable, and thatthe other was determined to fight, until the assault on FortSumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused theNorth to use every possible resource to maintain the governmentand the imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of theflag over every inch of the territory of the United States. Thefact that Lincoln's first proclamation called for only 75,000troops, to serve for three months, shows how inadequate was evenhis idea of what the future had in store. But from that momentLincoln and his loyal supporters never faltered in their purpose.They knew they could win, that it was their duty to win, and thatfor America the whole hope of the future depended upon theirwinning; for now by the acts of the seceding States the issue ofthe election to secure or prevent the extension of slavery--stoodtransformed into a struggle to preserve or to destroy the Union.

We cannot follow this contest. You know its giganticproportions; that it lasted four years instead of three months;that in its progress, instead of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000were enrolled on the side of the government alone; that theaggregate cost and loss to the nation approximated to1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than 300,000brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. Historyhas recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightfulyears; that he was the real President, the responsible and actualhead of the government, through it all; that he listened to alladvice, heard all parties, and then, always realizing hisresponsibility to God and the nation, decided every greatexecutive question for himself. His absolute honesty had becomeproverbial long before he was President. "Honest Abe Lincoln"was the name by which he had been known for years. His every actattested it.

In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he neverceased to be one of the plain people, as he always called them,never lost or impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was alwaysin perfect touch with them and open to their appeals; and herelay the very secret of his personality and of his power, for thepeople in turn gave him their absolute confidence. His courage,his fortitude, his patience, his hopefulness, were sorely triedbut never exhausted.

He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasionto change them, as he found them inadequate. This serious andpainful duty rested wholly upon him, and was perhaps his mostimportant function as Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, herecognized in General Grant the master of the situation, the manwho could and would bring the war to a triumphant end, he gave itall over to him and upheld him with all his might. Amid all thepressure and distress that the burdens of office brought uponhim, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it made itpossible for him to live under the burden. He had always beenthe great story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivatedthis faculty to relieve the weight of the load he bore.

It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having losthis temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole nightmight be spent in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, andharmless sarcasm. But I will recall only two of his sayings,both about General Grant, who always found plenty of enemies andcritics to urge the President to oust him from his command. One,I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They repeated withmalicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. "What does hedrink?" asked Lincoln. "Whiskey," was, of course, the answer;doubtless you can guess the brand. "Well," said the President,"just find out what particular kind he uses and I'll send abarrel to each of my other generals." The other must be aspleasing to the British as to the American ear. When pressedagain on other grounds to get rid of Grant, he declared, "I can'tspare that man, he fights!"

He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist theappeals of wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into troubleand were under sentence of death for their offences. HisSecretary of War and other officials complained that they nevercould get deserters shot. As surely as the women of theculprit's family could get at him he always gave way. Certainlyyou will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the sufferingrelatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled withtheirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance thanhis letter to a mother who had given all her sons to her country,written at a time when the angel of death had visited almostevery household in the land, and was already hovering over him.

"I have been shown," he says, "in the files of the War Departmenta statement that you are the mother of five sons who have diedgloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitlessmust be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile youfrom your grief for a loss so overwhelming but I cannot refrainfrom tendering to you the consolation which may be found in thethanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that ourHeavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement andleave you only the cherished memory of the loved and the lost,and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly asacrifice upon the altar of freedom."

Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of herqueenly and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching andtender to soothe the stricken mothers of her own soldiers.

The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delightedthe country and the world on the first of January, 1863, willdoubtless secure for him a foremost place in history among thephilanthropists and benefactors of the race, as it rescued, fromhopeless and degrading slavery, so many millions of his fellow-beings described in the law and existing in fact as "chattels-personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, to allintents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." Rarely doesthe happy fortune come to one man to render such a service to hiskind--to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all theinhabitants thereof.

Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instanceof this triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison,who thirty years before had begun his crusade for the abolitionof slavery, and had lived to see this glorious and unexpectedconsummation of the hopeless cause to which he had devoted hislife, well described the proclamation as a "great historic event,sublime in its magnitude, momentous and beneficent in its far-reaching consequences, and eminently just and right alike to theoppressor and the oppressed."

Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery.Tradition says that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans heformed his first and last opinion of slavery at the sight ofnegroes chained and scourged, and that then and there the ironentered into his soul. No boy could grow to manhood in thosedays as a poor white in Kentucky and Indiana, in close contactwith slavery or in its neighborhood, without a growingconsciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well asof its frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature ofIllinois, where the public sentiment was all for upholding theinstitution and violently against every movement for itsabolition or restriction, upon the passage of resolutions to thateffect he had the courage with one companion to put on record hisprotest, "believing that the institution of slavery is foundedboth in injustice and bad policy." No great demonstration ofcourage, you will say; but that was at a time when Garrison, forhis abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mobthrough the streets of Boston with a rope around his body, and inthe very year that Lovejoy in the same State of Illinois wasslain by rioters while defending his press, from which he hadprinted antislavery appeals.

In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in theDistrict of Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for untilthey raised treasonable hands against the life of the nation healways maintained that the property of the slaveholders, intowhich they had come by two centuries of descent, without fault ontheir part, ought not to be taken away from them without justcompensation. He used to say that, one way or another, he hadvoted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which Mr. Wilmot ofPennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which affectedUnited States territory, "that neither slavery nor involuntaryservitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory,"and it is evident that his condemnation of the system, on moralgrounds as a crime against the human race, and on politicalgrounds as a cancer that was sapping the vitals of the nation,and must master its whole being or be itself extirpated, grewsteadily upon him until it culminated in his great speeches inthe Illinois debate.

By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the furtherextension of slavery into the Territories was rendered foreverimpossible--Vox populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward,and when founded on a great moral sentiment stirring the heart ofan indignant people their edicts are irresistible and final. Hadthe slave power acquiesced in that election, had the SouthernStates remained under the Constitution and within the Union, andrelied upon their constitutional and legal rights, their favoriteinstitution, immoral as it was, blighting and fatal as it was,might have endured for another century. The great party that hadelected him, unalterably determined against its extension, wasnevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in theStates where it already existed. Of course, when new regionswere forever closed against it, from its very nature it must havebegun to shrink and to dwindle; and probably gradual andcompensated emancipation, which appealed very strongly to the newPresident's sense of justice and expediency, would, in theprogress of time, by a reversion to the ideas of the founders ofthe Republic, have found a safe outlet for both masters andslaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad,and when seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openlyseceded from the Union, when they declared and began the war uponthe nation, and challenged its mighty power to the desperate andprotracted struggle for its life, and for the maintenance of itsauthority as a nation over its territory, they gave to Lincolnand to freedom the sublime opportunity of history.

In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop ofprecious blood had been shed, while he held out to them the olivebranch in one hand, in the other he presented the guarantees ofthe Constitution, and after reciting the emphatic resolution ofthe convention that nominated him, that the maintenance inviolateof the "rights of the States, and especially the right of eachState to order and control its own domestic institutionsaccording to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to thatbalance of power on which the perfection and endurance of ourpolitical fabric depend," he reiterated this sentiment, anddeclared, with no mental reservation, "that all the protectionwhich, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can begiven, will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfullydemanded for whatever cause as cheerfully to one section as toanother."

When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunionwere rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitutionand every clause and principle of it; when they persisted instaying out of the Union from which they had seceded, andproceeded to carve out of its territory a new and hostile empirebased on slavery; when they flew at the throat of the nation andplunged it into the bloodiest war of the nineteenth century thetables were turned, and the belief gradually came to the mind ofthe President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued by forceof arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then toreach that end the salvation of the nation itself might requirethe destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the warwas to continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purposethan to preserve slavery, it must continue on the other side forthe Union, to destroy slavery.

As he said, "Events control me; I cannot control events," and asthe dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous,the unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in orderthat the frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sidesmight not be all in vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as a necessary war measure, to strike a blowat the Rebellion which, all others failing, would inevitably leadto its annihilation, by annihilating the very thing for which itwas contending. His own words are the best:

"I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to thebest of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving byevery indispensable means that government--that nation--of whichthat Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to losethe nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By general law,life and limb must be protected, yet often a limb must beamputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given tosave a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutionalmight become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservationof the Constitution through the preservation of the nation.Right or wrong, I assumed this ground and now avow it. I couldnot feel that to the best of my ability I had ever tried topreserve the Constitution if to save slavery or any minor matterI should permit the wreck of government, country, andConstitution all together."

And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessityhad come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamationwhich has made his name immortal. By it, the President, asCommander-in-Chief in time of actual armed rebellion, and as afit and necessary war measure for suppressing the rebellion,proclaimed all persons held as slaves in the States and parts ofStates then in rebellion to be thenceforward free, and declaredthat the executive, with the army and navy, would recognize andmaintain their freedom.

In the other great steps of the government, which led to thetriumphant prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared theresponsibility and the credit with the great statesmen who stayedup his hands in his cabinet, with Seward, Chase and Stanton, andthe rest,--and with his generals and admirals, his soldiers andsailors, but this great act was absolutely his own. Theconception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it beforehis cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and couldnot be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details.He chose the time and the circumstances under which theEmancipation should be proclaimed and when it should take effect.

It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the Northwould not have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteenmonths of the war its ravages had extended from the Atlantic tobeyond the Mississippi. Many victories in the West had beenbalanced and paralyzed by inaction and disasters in Virginia,only partially redeemed by the bloody and indecisive battle ofAntietam; a reaction had set in from the general enthusiasm whichhad swept the Northern States after the assault upon Sumter. Itcould not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction wasraising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of abugle, the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country tofresh sacrifices and renewed ardor. It was a step that could notbe revoked. It relieved the conscience of the nation from anincubus that had oppressed it from its birth. The United Stateswere rescued from the false predicament in which they had beenfrom the beginning, and the great popular heart leaped with newenthusiasm for "Liberty and Union, henceforth and forever, oneand inseparable." It brought not only moral but material supportto the cause of the government, for within two years 120,000colored troops were enlisted in the military service andfollowing the national flag, supported by all the loyalty of theNorth, and led by its choicest spirits. One mother said, whenher son was offered the command of the first colored regiment,"If he accepts it I shall be as proud as if I had heard that hewas shot." He was shot heading a gallant charge of hisregiment.... The Confederates replied to a request of hisfriends for his body that they had "buried him under a layer ofhis niggers....;" but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty-sixyears of his glory, and Boston has erected its noblest monumentto his memory.

The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of thewar was not immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advancedthey carried freedom with them, and when the summer came roundthe new spirit and force which had animated the heart of thegovernment and people were manifest. In the first week of Julythe decisive battle of Gettysburg turned the tide of war, and thefall of Vicksburg made the great river free from its source tothe Gulf.

On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of thesenew victories was of great importance. In those days, when therewas no cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciatewhat was really going on; they could not see clearly the truestate of affairs, as in the last year of the nineteenth centurywe have been able, by our new electric vision, to watch everyevent at the antipodes and observe its effect. The Rebelemissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, spared no pains toimpress upon the minds of public and private men and upon thepress their own views of the character of the contest. Theprospects of the Confederacy were always better abroad than athome. The stock markets of the world gambled upon its chances,and its bonds at one time were high in favor.

Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North wasfighting for empire and the South for independence; that theSouthern States, instead of being the grossest oligarchies,essentially despotisms, founded on the right of one man toappropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to exclude themfrom equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure thantheir Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom,and that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth tocrush them; that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders hadcreated a nation; that the republican experiment had failed andthe Union had ceased to exist. But the crowning argument toforeign minds was that it was an utter impossibility for thegovernment to win in the contest; that the success of theSouthern States, so far as separation was concerned, was ascertain as any event yet future and contingent could be; that thesubjugation of the South by the North, even if it could beaccomplished, would prove a calamity to the United States and theworld, and especially calamitous to the negro race; and that sucha victory would necessarily leave the people of the South formany generations cherishing deadly hostility against thegovernment and the North, and plotting always to recover theirindependence.

When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideaswere founded in error; that the national resources wereinexhaustible; that the government could and would win, and thatif slavery were once finally disposed of, the only cause ofdifference being out of the way, the North and South would cometogether again, and by and by be as good friends as ever. Inmany quarters abroad the proclamation was welcomed withenthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think thedemonstrations in its favor that brought more gladness toLincoln's heart than any other were the meetings held in themanufacturing centres, by the very operatives upon whom the warbore the hardest, expressing the most enthusiastic sympathy withthe proclamation, while they bore with heroic fortitude thegrievous privations which the war entailed upon them. Mr.Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the world that allslaves in all States then in rebellion were set free must havebeen that the avowed position of his government, that thecontinuance of the war now meant the annihilation of slavery,would make intervention impossible for any foreign nation whosepeople were lovers of liberty--and so the result proved.

The growth and development of Lincoln's mental power and moralforce, of his intense and magnetic personality, after the vastresponsibilities of government were thrown upon him at the age offifty-two, furnish a rare and striking illustration of themarvellous capacity and adaptability of the human intellect--ofthe sound mind in the sound body. He came to the discharge ofthe great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no experiencein the administration of government, or of the vastly varied andcomplicated questions of foreign and domestic policy whichimmediately arose, and continued to press upon him during therest of his life; but he mastered each as it came, apparentlywith the facility of a trained and experienced ruler. AsClarendon said of Cromwell, "His parts seemed to be raised by thedemands of great station." His life through it all was one ofintense labor, anxiety, and distress, without one hour ofpeaceful repose from first to last. But he rose to everyoccasion. He led public opinion, but did not march so far inadvance of it as to fail of its effective support in every greatemergency. He knew the heart and thought of the people, as noman not in constant and absolute sympathy with them could haveknown it, and so holding their confidence, he triumphed throughand with them. Not only was there this steady growth ofintellect, but the infinite delicacy of his nature and itscapacity for refinement developed also, as exhibited in thepurity and perfection of his language and style of speech. Therough backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of auniversity, became in the end, by self-training and the exerciseof his own powers of mind, heart, and soul, a master of style,and some of his utterances will rank with the best, the mostperfectly adapted to the occasion which produced them.

Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg,at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery? His whole soul wasin it:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on thiscontinent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to theproposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engagedin a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nationso conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on agreat battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate aportion of that field as a final resting-place for those who heregave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogetherfitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sensewe cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow thisground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here haveconsecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. Theworld will little note, nor long remember, what we say here butit can never forget what they did here. It is for us, theliving, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work whichthey who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It israther for us to be here dedicated to the great task remainingbefore us that from these honored dead we take increased devotionto that cause for which they gave the last full measure ofdevotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall nothave died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a newbirth of freedom--and that government of the people, by thepeople, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority ofhis countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced justforty days before his death, there is a single passage which welldisplays his indomitable will and at the same time his deepreligious feeling, his sublime charity to the enemies of hiscountry, and his broad and catholic humanity:

"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of thoseoffences which in the Providence of God must needs come, butwhich, having continued through the appointed time, He now willsto remove, and that He gives to both North and South thisterrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came,shall we discern therein any departure from those divineattributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe toHim? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mightyscourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that itcontinue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundredand fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until everydrop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with anotherdrawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, sostill it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord are true andrighteous altogether.'

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness inthe right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on tofinish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds; to carefor him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and hisorphan to do all which may achieve, and cherish a just andlasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained tohim were crowned with great historic events. He lived to see hisProclamation of Emancipation embodied in an amendment of theConstitution, adopted by Congress, and submitted to the Statesfor ratification. The mighty scourge of war did speedily passaway, for it was given him to witness the surrender of the Rebelarmy and the fall of their capital, and the starry flag that heloved waving in triumph over the national soil. When he died bythe madman's hand in the supreme hour of victory, the vanquishedlost their best friend, and the human race one of its noblestexamples; and all the friends of freedom and justice, in whosecause he lived and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave.

THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

1832-1843

1832

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

March 9, 1832.

FELLOW CITIZENS:--Having become a candidate for the honorableoffice of one of your Representatives in the next GeneralAssembly of this State, in according with an established customand the principles of true Republicanism it becomes my duty tomake known to you, the people whom I propose to represent, mysentiments with regard to local affairs.

Time and experience have verified to a demonstration the publicutility of internal improvements. That the poorest and mostthinly populated countries would be greatly benefited by theopening of good roads, and in the clearing of navigable streamswithin their limits, is what no person will deny. Yet it isfolly to undertake works of this or any other without firstknowing that we are able to finish them--as half-finished workgenerally proves to be labor lost. There cannot justly be anyobjection to having railroads and canals, any more than to othergood things, provided they cost nothing. The only objection isto paying for them; and the objection arises from the want ofability to pay.

With respect to the County of Sangamon, some....

Yet, however desirable an object the construction of a railroadthrough our country may be, however high our imaginations may beheated at thoughts of it,--there is always a heart-appallingshock accompanying the amount of its cost, which forces us toshrink from our pleasing anticipations. The probable cost ofthis contemplated railroad is estimated at $290,000; the barestatement of which, in my opinion, is sufficient to justify thebelief that the improvement of the Sangamon River is an objectmuch better suited to our infant resources.......

What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It isprobable, however, that it would not be greater than is common tostreams of the same length. Finally, I believe the improvementof the Sangamon River to be vastly important and highly desirableto the people of the county; and, if elected, any measure in theLegislature having this for its object, which may appearjudicious, will meet my approbation and receive my support.

It appears that the practice of loaning money at exorbitant ratesof interest has already been opened as a field for discussion; soI suppose I may enter upon it without claiming the honor orrisking the danger which may await its first explorer. It seemsas though we are never to have an end to this baneful andcorroding system, acting almost as prejudicially to the generalinterests of the community as a direct tax of several thousanddollars annually laid on each county for the benefit of a fewindividuals only, unless there be a law made fixing the limits ofusury. A law for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be madewithout materially injuring any class of people. In cases ofextreme necessity, there could always be means found to cheat thelaw; while in all other cases it would have its intended effect.I would favor the passage of a law on this subject which mightnot be very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor anddifficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases ofgreatest necessity.

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any planor system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as themost important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.That every man may receive at least a moderate education, andthereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and othercountries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our freeinstitutions, appears to be an objectof vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothingof the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all beingable to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religiousand moral nature, for themselves.

For my part, I desire to see the time when education--and by itsmeans, morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry--shall becomemuch more general than at present, and should be gratified tohave it in my power to contribute something to the advancement ofany measure which might have a tendency to accelerate that happyperiod.

With regard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to benecessary. Many respectable men have suggested that our estraylaws, the law respecting the issuing of executions, the road law,and some others, are deficient in their present form, and requirealterations. But, considering the great probability that theframers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer notmeddling with them, unless they were first attacked by others; inwhich case I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to takethat stand which, in my view, might tend most to the advancementof justice.

But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the greatdegree of modesty which should always attend youth, it isprobable I have already been more presuming than becomes me.However, upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spokenas I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all ofthem; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better onlysometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as Idiscover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready torenounce them.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it betrue or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great asthat of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by renderingmyself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed ingratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, andunknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever remained, inthe most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popularrelations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrownexclusively upon the independent voters of the county; and, ifelected, they will have conferred a favor upon me for which Ishall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But, if thegood people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in thebackground, I have been too familiar with disappointments to bevery much chagrined.

Your friend and fellow-citizen,A. LINCOLN.

New Salem, March 9, 1832.

1833

TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP.

NEW SALEM,Aug. 10, 1833

E. C. BLANKENSHIP.

Dear Sir:--In regard to the time David Rankin served the encloseddischarge shows correctly--as well as I can recollect--having nowriting to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my companyoccurred as follows: Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon'sferry and having acquaintance in one of the foot companies whowere going down the river was desirous to go with them, and oneGalishen being an acquaintance of mine and belonging to thecompany in which Rankin wished to go wished to leave it and joinmine, this being the case it was agreed that they should exchangeplaces and answer to each other's names--as it was expected weall would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket--Ihave no knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embracesall the facts now in my recollection which are pertinent to thecase.

I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in mypower should you call on me.

Your friend,A. LINCOLN.

RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT

TO Mr. SPEARS.

Mr. SPEARS:

At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on yourpaper. I am somewhat surprised at your request. I will,however, comply with it. The law requires newspaper postage tobe paid in advance, and now that I have waited a full year youchoose to wound my feelings by insinuating that unless you get areceipt I will probably make you pay it again.

Respectfully,A. LINCOLN.

1836

ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS.

New Salem, June 13, 1836.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "JOURNAL"--In your paper of last Saturday Isee a communication, over the signature of "Many Voters," inwhich the candidates who are announced in the Journal are calledupon to "show their hands." Agreed. Here's mine.

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assistin bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting allwhites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by nomeans excluding females).

If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon myconstituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me.

While acting as their representative, I shall be governed bytheir will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowingwhat their will is; and upon all others I shall do what my ownjudgment teaches me will best advance their interests. Whetherelected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of the salesof the public lands to the several States, to enable our State,in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroadswithout borrowing money and paying the interest on it. If aliveon the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. Whitefor President.

Very respectfully,A. LINCOLN.

RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR

TO ROBERT ALLEN

New Salem,June 21, 1836

DEAR COLONEL:--I am told that during my absence last week youpassed through this place, and stated publicly that you were inpossession of a fact or facts which, if known to the public,would entirely destroy the prospects of N. W. Edwards andmyself at the ensuing election; but that, through favor to us,you should forbear to divulge them. No one has needed favorsmore than I, and, generally, few have been less unwilling toaccept them; but in this case favor to me would be injustice tothe public, and therefore I must beg your pardon for decliningit. That I once had the confidence of the people of Sangamon, issufficiently evident; and if I have since done anything, eitherby design or misadventure, which if known would subject me to aforfeiture of that confidence, he that knows of that thing, andconceals it, is a traitor to his country's interest.

I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture of what factor facts, real or supposed, you spoke; but my opinion of yourveracity will not permit me for a moment to doubt that you atleast believed what you said. I am flattered with the personalregard you manifested for me; but I do hope that, on more maturereflection, you will view the public interest as a paramountconsideration, and therefore determine to let the worst come. Ihere assure you that the candid statement of facts on your part,however low it may sink me, shall never break the tie of personalfriendship between us. I wish an answer to this, and you are atliberty to publish both, if you choose.

Very respectfully,A. LINCOLN.

TO MISS MARY OWENS.

VANDALIA,December 13, 1836.

MARY:--I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should havewritten sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I havevery little even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoidthe mortification of looking in the post-office for your letterand not finding it, the better. You see I am mad about that oldletter yet. I don't like very well to risk you again. I'll tryyou once more, anyhow.

The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently theLegislature is doing little or nothing. The governor deliveredan inflammatory political message, and it is expected there willbe some sparring between the parties about it as soon as the twoHouses get to business. Taylor delivered up his petition for thenew county to one of our members this morning. I am told hedespairs of its success, on account of all the members fromMorgan County opposing it. There are names enough on thepetition, I think, to justify the members from our county ingoing for it; but if the members from Morgan oppose it, whichthey say they will, the chance will be bad.

Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield isbetter than I expected. An internal-improvement convention washeld there since we met, which recommended a loan of severalmillions of dollars, on the faith of the State, to constructrailroads. Some of the Legislature are for it, and some againstit; which has the majority I cannot tell. There is great strifeand struggling for the office of the United States Senator hereat this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in a fewdays. The opposition men have no candidate of their own, andconsequently they will smile as complacently at the angry snarlof the contending Van Buren candidates and their respectivefriends as the Christian does at Satan's rage. You recollectthat I mentioned at the outset of this letter that I had beenunwell. That is the fact, though I believe I am about well now;but that, with other things I cannot account for, have conspired,and have gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I would ratherbe any place in the world than here. I really cannot endure thethought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon as you getthis, and, if possible, say something that will please me, forreally I have not been pleased since I left you. This letter isso dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it, but with mypresent feelings I cannot do any better.

Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family.

Your friend,LINCOLN

1837

SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE.

January [?], 1837

Mr. CHAIRMAN:--Lest I should fall into the too common error ofbeing mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, Ishall make it my first care to remove all doubt on that point, bydeclaring that I am opposed to the resolution underconsideration, in toto. Before I proceed to the body of thesubject, I will further remark, that it is not without aconsiderable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross thetrack of the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do notbelieve I could muster a sufficiency of courage to come incontact with that gentleman, were it not for the fact that he,some days since, most graciously condescended to assure us thathe would never be found wasting ammunition on small game. On thesame fortunate occasion, he further gave us to understand, thathe regarded himself as being decidedly the superior of our commonfriend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; and feeling, as I really do,that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing more than the peerof our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman fromColes as decidedly my superior also, and consequently, in thecourse of what I shall have to say, whenever I shall haveoccasion to allude to that gentleman, I shall endeavor to adoptthat kind of court language which I understand to be due todecided superiority. In one faculty, at least, there can be nodispute of the gentleman's superiority over me and most othermen, and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so thatneither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it.Here he has introduced a resolution embracing ninety-nine printedlines across common writing paper, and yet more than one half ofhis opening speech has been made upon subjects about which thereis not one word said in his resolution.

Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to theconstitutionality of the Bank, much of what he has said has beenwith a view to make the impression that it was unconstitutionalin its inception. Now, although I am satisfied that an amplefield may be found within the pale of the resolution, at leastfor small game, yet, as the gentleman has traveled out of it, Ifeel that I may, with all due humility, venture to follow him.The gentleman has discovered that some gentleman at Washingtoncity has been upon the very eve of deciding our Bankunconstitutional, and that he would probably have completed hisvery authentic decision, had not some one of the Bank officersplaced his hand upon his mouth, and begged him to withhold it.The fact that the individuals composing our Supreme Court have,in an official capacity, decided in favor of theconstitutionality of the Bank, would, in my mind, seem asufficient answer to this. It is a fact known to all, that themembers of the Supreme Court, together with the Governor, form aCouncil of Revision, and that this Council approved this Bankcharter. I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision not quitebut almost made by the gentleman at Washington, before whom, bythe way, the question of the constitutionality of our Bank neverhas, nor never can come--is to be taken as paramount to adecision officially made by that tribunal, by which, and whichalone, the constitutionality of the Bank can ever be settled?But, aside from this view of the subject, I would ask, if thecommittee which this resolution proposes to appoint are toexamine into the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to beclothed with power to send for persons and papers, for thisobject? And after they have found the bank to beunconstitutional, and decided it so, how are they to enforcetheir decision? What will their decision amount to? They cannotcompel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course ofits operations. What good, then, can their labors result in?Certainly none.

The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, bygiving the State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stockreserved for the State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I donot pretend to possess sufficient legal knowledge to decidewhether a legislative enactment proposing to, and accepting from,the Bank, certain terms, would have the effect to legalize orwipe out its former errors, or not; but I can assure thegentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already gotbehind the settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all,that the Legislature, at its last session, passed a supplementalBank charter, which the Bank has since accepted, and which,according to his doctrine, has legalized all the allegedviolations of its original charter in the distribution of itsstock.

I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be foundthat the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third ofthe whole, relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock bythe commissioners appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clearthat no question can arise on this portion of the resolution,except a question between capitalists in regard to the ownershipof stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in their hands, whileothers, who have more money than they know what to do with, wantit; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle which weare called on to squander thousands of the people's money. Whatinterest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of thisquestion? What difference is it to them whether the stock isowned by Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitledto stock in the Bank, which he is kept out of possession of byothers, let him assert his right in the Supreme Court, and lethim or his antagonist, whichever may be found in the wrong, paythe costs of suit. It is an old maxim, and a very sound one,that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, Sir, inthe present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden tothem, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to thepeople's money being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubtthat the examination proposed by this resolution must cost theState some ten or twelve thousand dollars; and all this to settlea question in which the people have no interest, and about whichthey care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniouslyand in concert, to fleece the people, and now that they have gotinto a quarrel with themselves we are called upon to appropriatethe people's money to settle the quarrel.

I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder.It will be found that no charge in the remaining part of theresolution, if true, amounts to the violation of the Bankcharter, except one, which I will notice in due time. It mightseem quite sufficient to say no more upon any of these charges orinsinuations than enough to show they are not violations of thecharter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and handled, with aview to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their order all themost prominent of them. The first of these is in relation to aconnection between our Bank and several banking institutions inother States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should liketo see the gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman,undertake to show that there is any harm in it. What can therebe in such a connection, that the people of Illinois are willingto pay their money to get a peep into? By a reference to thetenth section of the Bank charter, any gentleman can see that theframers of the act contemplated the holding of stock in theinstitutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, whenneither law nor justice forbids it, that we are asked to spendour time and money in inquiring into its truth?

The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer,director, clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to takean oath of secrecy in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now,I do not know whether this be true or fa1se--neither do I believeany honest man cares. I know that the seventh section of thecharter expressly guarantees to the Bank the right of making,under certain restrictions, such by-laws as it may think fit; andI further know that the requiring an oath of secrecy would nottranscend those restrictions. What, then, if the Bank has chosento exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does not everymerchant have his secret mark? and who is ever silly enough tocomplain of it? I presume if the Bank does require any such oathof secrecy, it is done through a motive of delicacy to thoseindividuals who deal with it. Why, Sir, not many days since, onegentleman upon this floor, who, by the way, I have no doubt isnow ready to join this hue and cry against the Bank, indulged ina philippic against one of the Bank officials, because, as hesaid, he had divulged a secret.

Immediately following this last charge, there are severalinsinuations in the resolution, which are too silly to requireany sort of notice, were it not for the fact that they concludeby saying, "to the great injury of the people at large." Inanswer to this I would say that it is strange enough, that thepeople are suffering these "great injuries," and yet are notsensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should bewrithing under oppression and injury, and yet not one among themto be found to raise the voice of complaint. If the Bank beinflicting injury upon the people, why is it that not a singlepetition is presented to this body on the subject? If the Bankreally be a grievance, why is it that no one of the real peopleis found to ask redress of it? The truth is, no such oppressionexists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials andpetitions, and we would not be permitted to rest day or night,till we had put it down. The people know their rights, and theyare never slow to assert and maintain them, when they areinvaded. Let them call for an investigation, and I shall everstand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no suchcall. I make the assertion boldly, and without fear ofcontradiction, that no man, who does not hold an office, or doesnot aspire to one, has ever found any fault of the Bank. It hasdoubled the prices of the products of their farms, and filledtheir pockets with a sound circulating medium, and they are allwell pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it is the politicianwho is the first to sound the alarm (which, by the way, is afalse one.) It is he, who, by these unholy means, is endeavoringto blow up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is he,and he alone, that here proposes to spend thousands of thepeople's public treasure, for no other advantage to them than tomake valueless in their pockets the reward of their industry.Mr. Chairman, this work is exclusively the work of politicians; aset of men who have interests aside from the interests of thepeople, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass,at least one long step removed from honest men. I say this withthe greater freedom, because, being a politician myself, none canregard it as personal.

Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of theBank have loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Supposethis to be true, are we to send a committee of this House toinquire into it? Suppose the committee should find it true, canthey redress the injured individuals? Assuredly not. If anyindividual had been injured in this way, is there not an ampleremedy to be found in the laws of the land? Does the gentlemanfrom Coles know that there is a statute standing in full forcemaking it highly penal for an individual to loan money at ahigher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he does not heis too ignorant to be placed at the head of the committee whichhis resolution purposes and if he does, his neglect to mention itshows him to be too uncandid to merit the respect or confidenceof any one.

But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence,could not the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, aswell as now? whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, Iknow that usurious transactions were much more frequent andenormous before the commencement of its operations than they haveever been since.

The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused speciepayments. This, if true is a violation of the charter. Butthere is not the least probability of its truth; because, if suchhad been the fact, the individual to whom payment was refusedwould have had an interest in making it public, by suing for thedamages to which the charter entitles him. Yet no such thing hasbeen done; and the strong presumption is, that the insinuation isfalse and groundless.

>From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing thatmerits attention--I therefore drop the particular examination ofit.

By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that aprincipal object of the committee is to examine into, and ferretout, a mass of corruption supposed to have been committed by thecommissioners who apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believeit is universally understood and acknowledged that all men willever act correctly unless they have a motive to do otherwise. Ifthis be true, we can only suppose that the commissioners actedcorruptly by also supposing that they were bribed to do so.Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the Bank islikely to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of seven,which, we are about to appoint, than it may have found it tobribe the commissioners?

(Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr.Lincoln was not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House,but, before the question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying hepreferred to let the gentleman go on; he thought he would breakhis own neck. Mr. Lincoln proceeded:)

Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude.I know I was not out of order; and I know every sensible man inthe House knows it. I was not saying that the gentleman fromColes could be bribed, nor, on the other hand, will I say hecould not. In that particular I leave him where I found him. Iwas only endeavoring to show that there was at least as great aprobability of any seven members that could be selected from thisHouse being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that thetwenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference tothe ninth section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that thosecommissioners were John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, DanielWarm, A.G. S. Wight, John C. Riley, W. H. Davidson, EdwardM. Wilson, Edward L. Pierson, Robert R. Green, Ezra Baker,Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel C. Christy, Edmund Roberts,Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. Jenkins, W. Linn, W.S. Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, A.H.Buckner, W. F. Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor.

These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State.Probably no twenty-four men could be selected in the State withwhom the people are better acquainted, or in whose honor andintegrity they would more readily place confidence. And I nowrepeat, that there is less probability that those men have beenbribed and corrupted, than that any seven men, or rather any sixmen, that could be selected from the members of this House, mightbe so bribed and corrupted, even though they were headed and ledon by "decided superiority" himself.

In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue bejoined by these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, andany other seven men, on the other part, and the whole depend uponthe honor and integrity of the contending parties, to which partywould the greatest degree of credit be due? Again: Anotherconsideration is, that we have no right to make the examination.What I shall say upon this head I design exclusively for the law-loving and law-abiding part of the House. To those who claimomnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the plenitude oftheir assumed powers are disposed to disregard the Constitution,law, good faith, moral right, and everything else, I have not aword to say. But to the law-abiding part I say, examine the Bankcharter, go examine the Constitution, go examine the acts thatthe General Assembly of this State has passed, and you will findjust as much authority given in each and every of them to compelthe Bank to bring its coffers to this hall and to pour theircontents upon this floor, as to compel it to submit to thisexamination which this resolution proposes. Why, Sir, thegentleman from Co1es, the mover of this resolution, very latelydenied on this floor that the Legislature had any right to repealor otherwise meddle with its own acts, when those acts were madein the nature of contracts, and had been accepted and acted on byother parties. Now I ask if this resolution does not propose,for this House alone, to do what he, but the other day, deniedthe right of the whole Legislature to do? He must either abandonthe position he then took, or he must now vote against his ownresolution. It is no difference to me, and I presume but littleto any one else, which he does.

I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have longthought that it would be well for it to report its condition tothe General Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it mightbe proper to make an examination of its affairs by a committee.Accordingly, during the last session, while a bill supplementalto the Bank charter was pending before the House, I offered anamendment to the same, in these words: "The said corporationshall, at the next session of the General Assembly, and at eachsubsequent General Session, during the existence of its charter,report to the same the amount of debts due from said corporation;the amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie in itsvaults, and an account of all lands then owned by the same, andthe amount for which such lands have been taken; and moreover, ifsaid corporation shall at any time neglect or refuse to submitits books, papers, and all and everything necessary for a fulland fair examination of its affairs, to any person or personsappointed by the General Assembly, for the purpose of making suchexamination, the said corporation shall forfeit its charter."

This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven ofthe 34 who voted against it are now members of this House; andthough it would be out of order to call their names, I hope theywill all recollect themselves, and not vote for this examinationto be made without authority, inasmuch as they refused to receivethe authority when it was in their power to do so.

I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might beproper; but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; andif it has, I should still be opposed to making an examinationwithout legal authority. I am opposed to encouraging thatlawless and mobocratic spirit, whether in relation to the Bank oranything else, which is already abroad in the land and isspreading with rapid and fearful impetuosity, to the ultimateoverthrow of every institution, of every moral principle, inwhich persons and property have hitherto found security.

But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good canresult from the examination? Can we declare the Bankunconstitutional, and compel it to desist from the abuses of itspower, provided we find such abuses to exist? Can we repair theinjuries which it may have done to individuals? Most certainly wecan do none of these things. Why thenshall we spend the public money in such employment? Oh, say theexaminers, we can injure the credit of the Bank, if nothing else,Please tell me, gentlemen, who will suffer most by that? Youcannot injure, to any extent, the stockholders. They are men ofwealth--of large capital; and consequently, beyond the power ofmalice. But by injuring the credit of the Bank, you willdepreciate the value of its paper in the hands of the honest andunsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can do.But suppose you could effect your whole purpose; suppose youcould wipe the Bank from existence, which is the grand ultimatumof the project, what would be the consequence? why, Sir, weshould spend several thousand dollars of the public treasure inthe operation, annihilate the currency of the State, rendervalueless in the hands of our people that reward of their formerlabors, and finally be once more under the comfortable obligationof paying the Wiggins loan, principal and interest.

OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE

ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN' S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.

January 27, 1837.

As a subject for the remarks of the evening, "The Perpetuation ofour Political Institutions "is selected.

In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, theAmerican people, find our account running under date of thenineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves inthe peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth asregards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity ofclimate. We find ourselves under the government of a system ofpolitical institutions conducing more essentially to the ends ofcivil and religious liberty than any of which the history offormer times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence,found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamentalblessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment ofthem; they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, andpatriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors.Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possessthemselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, andto uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice ofliberty and equal rights; it is ours only to transmit these--theformer unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayedby the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation--to the latestgeneration that fate shall permit the world to know. This taskgratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty toposterity, and love for our species in general, all imperativelyrequire us faithfully to perform.

How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect theapproach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step theocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe,Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth(our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte fora commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio ormake a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? Ianswer: If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; itcannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we mustourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen wemust live through all time, or die by suicide.

I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even nowsomething of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasingdisregard for law which pervades the country--the growingdisposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieuof the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobsfor the executive ministers of justice. This disposition isawfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours,though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violationof truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts ofoutrages committed by mobs form the everyday news of the times.They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana;they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former northe burning suns of the latter; they are not the creature ofclimate, neither are they confined to the slave holding or thenon-slave holding States. Alike they spring up among thepleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-lovingcitizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their causemay be, it is common to the whole country.

It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors ofall of them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and atSt. Louis are perhaps the most dangerous in example andrevolting to humanity. In the Mississippi case they firstcommenced by hanging the regular gamblers--a set of men certainlynot following for a livelihood a very useful or very honestoccupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by thelaws, was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passedbut a single year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiringto raise an insurrection were caught up and hanged in all partsof the State; then, white men supposed to be leagued with thenegroes; and finally, strangers from neighboring States, going